An ever-present achievement gap has been found among students and their peers. Educational research and literature have found that the growing gap is due in part to a lack of parent involvement in their students' education and academic performance. The purpose of this study was to investigate how parent involvement affects student achievement and…

Educators often struggle daily with the issue of how to engage students for learning. Many instructional strategies are devoted to the concept of engagement to keep students interested and on task to enhance learning, but defining the term is difficult. Engagement may involve a combination of terms that relates to the effort of students when they…

Sometimes it's not easy for highly creative children to "comply" with a regular curriculum, even at the preschool age. They are wired to explore, experiment, build, imagine, and create. If forced at a young age into a diet heavy on rote learning and directed work, they may struggle. It's not that these children can't do the work, it's…

This study explores the role of a particular social cue--the "sequence" of demonstrated actions and events--in preschooler's categorization. A demonstrator sorted objects that varied on both a surface feature (color) and a nonobvious property (sound made when shaken). Children saw a sequence of actions in which the nonobvious property…

As classrooms continue to diversify, there is an increasing need to understand children's inclusive behaviours and moral reasoning. Research shows that epistemic beliefs (beliefs about knowing and knowledge) can influence reasoning for adults, but we know little about this relationship in younger children or how classroom contexts relate to…

Given that early caregiver concerns may be different for children who go on to receive a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder versus another developmental disability, early caregiver concerns may differ for girls. Using a community-based sample of children (n = 241), we examined the extent to which gender differences may be related to caregiver…

Despite increased investment in early childhood care and education (ECCE) globally, little is known about its effectiveness in low-income countries. Using kernel exact matching within a national sample of 1,623 Zambian 6-year-olds, we test the associations between ECCE participation and seven domains of children's school readiness. We find ECCE…

Cultivating leadership identity early in a child's development is crucial. This article examines the development of an intentional leadership identity development program for young girls. Using participatory action research (PAR), faculty and students from a college school of social work and administrators and teachers from a suburban…

Although children's use of speech registers such as Baby Talk is well documented, little is known about their understanding of Foreigner Talk, a register addressed to non-native speakers. In Study 1, 4- to 8-year-old children and adults (N = 125) heard 4 registers (Foreigner Talk, Baby Talk, Peer Talk, and Teacher Talk) and predicted who would…

Background: Although plausible links between language development and personality have been suggested, longitudinal studies of these associations into adulthood have not been conducted. Aim: To investigate whether children's age at attaining language milestones is associated with later adult personality. Methods: Mothers' of 8,400 children from…

School recess as a valued component of school life is under challenge. The present study aims to investigate the pupils' perspectives about the role and the meaning of play during school recess recognising the role of the children as agents in their own development and considering play as a socio-cultural activity undertaken, developed and…

In two studies, the role of nature experiences and social norms during childhood is explored next to adulthood biospheric values, connectedness to nature, environmental identity, and objective knowledge in relation to pro-environmental behaviors. Study 1 (N = 185) tested the hypothesized model in the realm of general pro-environmental behaviors…

This study examined influences, factors, and processes associated with parental recognition and response to developmental concerns through interviews and focus groups with six Spanish- and 17 English-speaking parents of children aged 2 weeks to 4.5 years with developmental concerns. Results revealed that social support, perceptions of perceived…

In this article, Melanie Wasserman reviews the latest evidence about the causal link between family structure and children's economic and social outcomes. Going beyond the question of whether family structure affects child outcomes--a topic that's already been covered at length, including in previous Future of Children volumes--she examines how…

Aesthetic education is fundamental to young children's holistic development and future lives. The development of aesthetic sensibility has been promoted in early childhood education in various countries and is an important issue in Taiwan's current educational practice. This paper aims to examine the aesthetic domain of the "Early Childhood…